The ferocious Gabon Duiker, also known as Cephalophus leucogaster, is an animal known to inhabit parts of Africa. It is related to the antelope, though it is much more dangerous. Its venom could kill an elephant in a mere three minutes.
If I were to tell the truth, however, such would not be the case.
This Gabon Duiker is stuffed and has been living for quite awhile in the Bean Museum on the BYU campus. Yesterday, during my sketching class, we spent a few hours there sketching random animals, such as the Bat-eared Fox, some crazy mountain goats, the Wahoo (a surprisingly dangerous-looking fish), small deer with fangs, a large weaselish thing called a Civet, and, of course, the Gabon Duiker, along with all his other Duiker friends.
Maybe it’s just me, but I found many of the names hilarious, not to mention the animals themselves. This particular Duiker had what appeared to be a rather deformed head with huge eyes. The classmate next to me, drawing another species of Duiker, commented that Mr. Duiker (my name for this Gabon one) had an expression on his face that seemed to say, “Please, come eat me!”
I had to agree with her.
Anyway, it was a rather interesting field-trip. While my sketches didn’t turn out quite as well as I had hoped they would, it was a very entertaining time. Maybe I should consider going in to anthropology…
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